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2022 Television Predictions

Sinclair spins off "The National Desk" from a morning program into its own subchannel netlet. Early speculation is that it replaces TBD, but it becomes its own netlet (including here in the Springfield, IL area on WICS's presently nonexistent WICS-20.5 spot).

The Peoria and Springfield/Decatur/Champaign DMAs in central Illinois get the effects of the Scripps/Ion merger (despite no Scripps stations here as the Katz networks are dropped in Peoria from CBS stations WMBD-31.2/3/4 and in S/D/C from WCIA-3.3/4 and WCIX-49.3/4 (the latter is My on 49.1 but WCIA's CBS signal is simulcast on 49.2 for the Springfield/west half of the market).

Antenna TV and Rewind move to WMBD-31.3 and 31.4 in Peoria and simulcast on WCIA (Champaign area) and WCIX (Springfield area)'s .3 and .4 signals.

WMBD also uses the occasion to bring MyNet back to the Peoria/Bloomington market by launching "My 'MBD" on 31.2 (with similar programming as WCIX-49.1/WCIA-3.2 in the Springfield/Champaign market). WMBD also makes plans to bring the Fox affiliation in-house from WYZZ-43.1 Bloomington (Sinclair-owned but LMA'ed by Nexstar/WMBD) when WYZZ"s Fox contract expires (on a future channel 31.5). Which would put all major Peoria/Bloomington signals onto the general transmitter farm area in the East Peoria/Groveland area southeast of Peoria.
 
here's my TV predictions for 2022 for both National and DFW (my local TV market).

National:
more disputes for all providers in 2022 (this is a given, not actually a prediction really, given the nature of paid TV in the streaming world).

The Goldberg's current season will be the last, after recent news of Jeff Garlin quitting the show earlier this week.

WWE will anger both TV partners off with the continued declining ratings, that they will face the possibility of cancelation come the end of their TV contract if no "Out clause" was on the current TV deals.

AEW gets another ratings boost with the move to TBS for Dynamite while TNT retains Rampage (for now) and The Saturday Night Fights special, however due to declining ratings, Rampage is moved to Saturday evenings on TBS at 6 PM ET (not 6:05 PM since Turner Time was phased out a long time ago and ViacomCBS is using the spatial successor of it "ViacomCBS Time".) and it gets a ratings boost on the time slot, the Saturday Night fights specials will become Sunday Night Fights airing on Sundays in prime time instead.

ABC and NFL reach a new deal to turn Monday Night Football into a simulcast of Monday Night Football all season long, the long time Monday Night reality TV staples becomes Tuesday shows during NFL Football season.

NASCAR Will reach a new deal to bring their NASCAR races to a new home for some races, NBC Sports bows out, NASCAR moved the NBC Races to either CBS, Turner Sports (TNT/TBS), ESPN, with some races moving behind the streaming paywall similar to what it was in the 90s where some races aired on Network and others on Basic Cable, just the Basic Cable races will move to streaming while more races will be on OTA TV.

CBS rolls out new graphics for the local newscast on all O&O stations that a unified with CBSN locals feeds, in fact, the newscast will be rebranded to the "CBSN (local market verison)/CBS (local station's number, or in the case of some CBS O&O, their calls and number) news at (time of day)".

CNN is sold off as part of the spinoff of WarnerMedia by AT&T as part of it's plans of the Discovery Networks merger, but the WarnerMedia Discovery Networks merger is canceled by the DOJ sighting AT&T potentially being a heavy investor of the newly merge company simlar to how they are shareholders of the newly spun off DirecTV.

WarnerMedia and NBCUniversal sales their RSNs to Sinclair for cheap, thus forcing Bally Sports to own the majority of RSNs, this also pushes Sinclair into bankruptcy, forcing them to sell ROH to AEW or WWE thus formally ending the promotion, and canceling the plan reboot of ROH.

DFW TV:
Clarice Tinsley will retire from KDFW Fox 4 by year's end after a long run with Fox 4 dating back to the 1970s when it was a CBS station.

WFAA will move back to their Greg Street studios (this part was already confirmed by WFAA themselves as well as Newscast Studios) and it will be mostly be a mixed of Video board screens, Augmented Reality and old school green screen tech that would be used for the AR graphics, also WFAA will be the first station to start a TEGNA company wide graphics overhaul with graphics debuting first with WFAA but will show up in other markets for TEGNA O&O stations.

Just like WFAA, KDFW finally remodels it's studio with a updated state of the art new look as their current news studios has been in used since 2006, with minor tweaks to the look of the studio over the years since KDFW first switched to HD in 2009.

Nexstar relaunches the 5 and 9 PM newscast on KDAF CW 33 to compete with FOX 4 again, complete with the Dallas Newsroom for Newsnation helping out with the broadcast.
 
Start TV,My Family Network and so on finally comes to KC area.
WDAF launches a 4pm Newscast.
Yes the stations have signed new deals with the MLB but part of new MLB deal tbe Players Assocation would like it to include rotating All-Star Game/World Series between ESPN/Fox.
 
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Sprectrum will get rid of SD versions of HD channels,add Decades and so on National Feeds,Other local News Channels.
CCI will add channels to all its Lineups to have all the same.
ESPN will have Chris Berman call Super Bowl Games.
Isn't Berman retired? He and his corny old shtick were being pushed out the door by ESPN for years. Why on earth would they want him to call the Super Bowl?
 
More people get frustrated with streaming (as we see with the disputes between Disney and YouTubeTV) and head back to cable.
...This may be especially true for those who cut the cord in the first place primarily to save $$$. At one time lots of quality content was available for free via the web, and national networks and some other programming was available OTA to many, so between the two and maybe a Netflix subscription they were covered. Now, a lot of the types of programming that could once be found and streamed at no cost, requires a subscription and all of those various services for all the content some want to see adds up.

Discovery is a good example where lots of their archived programs and old episodes of popular shows from the various networks they own was once available free of charge on their various websites. Now you pay to see it on Discovery+. Once it becomes a situation where people start paying "too much" in their opinions for all those different streaming services and regional sports networks and other programming they'll need to pay for piecemeal, then cable or dish may become attractive again...Unless, of course, in the example of the Notre Dame game in the post above, that horse has already bolted and they may be surprised to find that not everything that was once available via a cable subscription is always still going to be there.

The other thing I noted about HGTV in particular is that they'll have endless reruns and "marathons" of a show like Home Town, then during the breaks they'll show teasers for some really attractive and interesting looking programs, and tell you at the end that "You can see all this and more with a subscription to Discovery+...Now back to endless episodes of worn out, boring ole' Home Town via your cable provider".
 
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...This may be especially true for those who cut the cord in the first place primarily to save $$$. At one time lots of quality content was available for free via the web, and national networks and some other programming was available OTA to many, so between the two and maybe a Netflix subscription they were covered. Now, a lot of the types of programming that could once be found and streamed at no cost, requires a subscription and all of those various services for all the content some want to see adds up.

Discovery is a good example where lots of their archived programs and old episodes of popular shows from the various networks they own was once available free of charge on their various websites. Now you pay to see it on Discovery+. Once it becomes a situation where people start paying "too much" in their opinions for all those different streaming services and regional sports networks and other programming they'll need to pay for piecemeal, then cable or dish may become attractive again...Unless, of course, in the example of the Notre Dame game in the post above, that horse has already bolted and they may be surprised to find that not everything that was once available via a cable subscription is always still going to be there.

The other thing I noted about HGTV in particular is that they'll have endless reruns and "marathons" of a show like Home Town, then during the breaks they'll show teasers for some really attractive and interesting looking programs, and tell you at the end that "You can see all this and more with a subscription to Discovery+...Now back to endless episodes of worn out, boring ole' Home Town via your cable provider".

For people to go back to cable/satellite, the content networks have got to 1. innovate (MTV playing 24/7 "Ridiculousness" is the lazy programmer's way out) and 2. limit commercial breaks (having more ads than content is the reason why people cancelled cable/satellite in droves). We see that broadcast is ailing (NBC just launched shows this week that would have been promising as late as five years ago, now they are already on the brink of cancellation) but will audiences ever go back to the way it was before?
 
1. innovate (MTV playing 24/7 "Ridiculousness" is the lazy programmer's way out)
MTV and VH-1 haven't played music videos in years, much less non-stop, 24/7 with well-known "VJs" as they did decades ago.
2. limit commercial breaks (having more ads than content is the reason why people cancelled cable/satellite in droves).
Actually, most initially "cut the cord" with cable and dish as they were paying astronomical monthly fees, and when many people looked at what they were actually viewing, they maybe only watched 1/2 dozen or fewer channels on a regular basis, yet were paying for 800 or more. For many it made more sense to stream only the stuff they wanted to watch, much of it available until relatively recently for free or at minimal cost, and maybe pick up a subscription service like Netflix for movies.

We rarely sit through commercials, though we subscribe to cable (for our particular case and viewing habits, it was the best option. That may change one day, depending). Comcast allows one to use the pause button on the remote to buffer up to 30 minutes of programming. For a sporting event that starts at 7, we can start watching at 7:30 and the buffer allows us to sail through commercials and even stuff like 1/2 time highlights and interviews we don't care to see, as we're most interested in the actual contest. While some "on-demand" programs forbid using fast forward at least during commercial breaks, much of the programming will allow you to forward through everything. Subscribers to Comcast get complimentary access to Peacock premium. The few programs we've watched there have allowed us to jump ahead to anywhere within the program, including skipping past breaks.
 
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MTV and VH-1 haven't played music videos in years, much less non-stop, 24/7 with well-known "VJs" as they did decades ago.

You're right. But, up to about 10 years ago, MTV actually aired more than just a few select shows. "Marathoning" episodes of one program has been a very common programming model with cable TV for two decades, but it's become a lazy way to program channels. I miss the days where there was a set schedule of a number of different programs.
Actually, most initially "cut the cord" with cable and dish as they were paying astronomical monthly fees, and when many people looked at what they were actually viewing, they maybe only watched 1/2 dozen or fewer channels on a regular basis, yet were paying for 800 or more. For many it made more sense to stream only the stuff they wanted to watch, much of it available until relatively recently for free or at minimal cost, and maybe pick up a subscription service like Netflix for movies.

We rarely sit through commercials, though we subscribe to cable (for our particular case and viewing habits, it was the best option. That may change one day, depending). Comcast allows one to use the pause button on the remote to buffer up to 30 minutes of programming. For a sporting event that starts at 7, we can start watching at 7:30 and the buffer allows us to sail through commercials and even stuff like 1/2 time highlights and interviews we don't care to see, as we're most interested in the actual contest. While some "on-demand" programs forbid using fast forward at least during commercial breaks, much of the programming will allow you to forward through everything. Subscribers to Comcast get complimentary access to Peacock premium. The few programs we've watched there have allowed us to jump ahead to anywhere within the program, including skipping past breaks.

I still stand with what I said earlier. Viacom was the worst offender of packing more commercials than content to scheduled programs, to the point where shows had odd start times. The networks tripled down on the spot loads. People didn't (and still don't) want to pay for networks which air more commercials than programs.
 
...This may be especially true for those who cut the cord in the first place primarily to save $$$. At one time lots of quality content was available for free via the web, and national networks and some other programming was available OTA to many, so between the two and maybe a Netflix subscription they were covered. Now, a lot of the types of programming that could once be found and streamed at no cost, requires a subscription and all of those various services for all the content some want to see adds up.

Discovery is a good example where lots of their archived programs and old episodes of popular shows from the various networks they own was once available free of charge on their various websites. Now you pay to see it on Discovery+. Once it becomes a situation where people start paying "too much" in their opinions for all those different streaming services and regional sports networks and other programming they'll need to pay for piecemeal, then cable or dish may become attractive again...Unless, of course, in the example of the Notre Dame game in the post above, that horse has already bolted and they may be surprised to find that not everything that was once available via a cable subscription is always still going to be there.

The other thing I noted about HGTV in particular is that they'll have endless reruns and "marathons" of a show like Home Town, then during the breaks they'll show teasers for some really attractive and interesting looking programs, and tell you at the end that "You can see all this and more with a subscription to Discovery+...Now back to endless episodes of worn out, boring ole' Home Town via your cable provider".
My wife (a huge Pioneer Woman fan) was excited about the Food Network's movie in which Ree Drummond makes an appearance, only to find out it's only on Discovery Plus. Fortunately, I found a free trial. Ms. Drummond was on-screen a total of 5 minutes
 
More people get frustrated with streaming (as we see with the disputes between Disney and YouTubeTV) and head back to cable.
I am frustrated with streaming right now, but not so much that I would head back to cable. I mean I would be getting the same problem. On Hulu, my main concerns are the occasional connection problem (this happens on cable too) and the price ($70, although a lot, is still better than the $120+ I probably paid for cable). I would go buy an ATSC 3.0 tuner before I would go back, just saying.
 
"Marathoning" episodes of one program has been a very common programming model with cable TV for two decades, but it's become a lazy way to program channels. I miss the days where there was a set schedule of a number of different programs.
Welcome to the modern world. Binging is the name of the game. That's not lazy, it's adapting to consumer behavior.
 
I don't think so, since reality TV is not their forte.
I look at them continuing to broadcast "Masters of Illusion" and the iHeartRadio specials and wonder if the producers are paying the network for airtime. "Masters of Illusion" and its sibling specials like the "Hollywood Christmas Parade" aren't necessarily "network quality" shows (you can argue that they're not even "CW-quality" shows), and any executive at The CW would probably agree. The CW doesn't make money airing scripted programs - they get more viewers for those shows on streaming platforms.
Welcome to the modern world. Binging is the name of the game. That's not lazy, it's adapting to consumer behavior.

But how many times can one watch an repeat episode of "Ridiculousness" or "Say Yes To The Dress" before getting tired of it? It's not like these networks have 1,000 episodes of each show at their disposal.
 
I look at them continuing to broadcast "Masters of Illusion" and the iHeartRadio specials and wonder if the producers are paying the network for airtime. "Masters of Illusion" and its sibling specials like the "Hollywood Christmas Parade" aren't necessarily "network quality" shows (you can argue that they're not even "CW-quality" shows), and any executive at The CW would probably agree. The CW doesn't make money airing scripted programs - they get more viewers for those shows on streaming platforms.


But how many times can one watch an repeat episode of "Ridiculousness" or "Say Yes To The Dress" before getting tired of it? It's not like these networks have 1,000 episodes of each show at their disposal.
No one ever went broke underestimating the tastes of the American public.
 
No one ever went broke underestimating the tastes of the American public.
Cord cutting. My Comcast subscription (from my bill). $90 for Internet, $10 for landline, leaves $80 for TV (including HBO)

Before the row with Disney, You Tube TV was $70. Tell me where I am going to save tons of money by cutting the cord
 
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